What Does Speed Garage sound like?

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I'm pretty behind on all things techno (2-step is Craig David and Jordan Knight, right?). But everyone mentions speed garage? What does it sound like? Please don't just list a bunch of artists, actually talk about sonics. And if you are gonna compare it other sounds, pick something popular, don't say shit like "has a similiar feel to Squarepusher but with bass like DJXWYS." That won't help me.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:24 (twenty-three years ago)

GROSS OVERSIMPLIFICATION ALERT:

speed garage = house (or more accurately "garage", typified by a more bustling/syncopated snare pattern) beats + jungle bass (dub-inflected or wah-wah'd "dread bass") + dancehall influenced MCing or divas.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:27 (twenty-three years ago)

in that vein:

2-step = timbaland X speed garage -/- 2-step drum & bass.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:28 (twenty-three years ago)

or just go

here: http://members.aol.com/blissout/2step.htm

and then

here: http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/garage01_1.html

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:32 (twenty-three years ago)

that does help a bit. so why is it called speed garage? The term sounds more approriate for the Hives.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:33 (twenty-three years ago)

well, the "garage" comes from NJ Garage (house with the shuffly snares) and the "speed" comes from the fact that they used to play garage imports in drum & bass club chillout rooms pitched up to +4 or + 8 or whatever in order to keep up with the general tempo. when people started making their own jungle-inflected garage productions in england, they kept the tempo the same.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:39 (twenty-three years ago)

it's derived from garage (the term originated from "the music played at the Paradise Garage", a NY disco/house club). Basically a synthesized version of disco. Somebody clever added fat and loud jungle basslines, sped it up a bit, and presto: speed garage. It's ALL about those basslines.

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Basically a synthesized version of disco.

No.

check out

this pagehttp://www.jahsonic.com/Garage.html

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:56 (twenty-three years ago)

most stuff classed as speed garage was barely faster than garage (extra 10bpm max!)

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 20:40 (twenty-three years ago)

From http://www.garage-music.com/garage1.htm

"Another way of finding out what is Garage is, is to look towards technology. Early New York producers such as Ace Mugin, James Bratton, Danny Morales, and Frankie Knuckles wanted to recreate the disco sound, but after the collapse of disco, disco music was proving too expensive to record live. Cheap synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines suited the now highly specialized dance market."

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 20:53 (twenty-three years ago)

thanks, everybody. ILM can be used as a source of good it seems!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 21:03 (twenty-three years ago)

It seems? You 'orrible man, it is always a source of good. Except when it isn't. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 21:29 (twenty-three years ago)

So basically it's like jungle but with less cool beats (but more danceable), then.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 14 November 2002 00:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I think that "jungle with less cool beats" is perhaps the wrong way of looking at it - speed garage is house, only rougher and less sparkly. The jungle element in speed garage is allusive (and elusive) - the turbocharged basslines, the rewinds, the ragga elements, the gunshots (all of which can just be summed up as ragga/dancehall elements), so thinking of it as a class of jungle is like thinking of Timbaland r&b/hip hop as a class of techno. Prior to 2-step, the only speed garage that I think was really really serious about the jungle connection was the Armand Van Helden stuff with its techstep basslines.

2-step is the point where garage begins to be meaningfully comparable to jungle, and once you get there the "less cool beats" tag no longer applies.

The return to 4/4 in garage (immediately post the soca-beat explosion and mere seconds ahead of the brutalist handclap electro stuff - does any other dance style morph so fast??) offers an interesting line of inquiry, as it's 4/4 that's almost *totally* divorced from house. I like Reynolds' description of the current spectrum of being an almost "black gabba" - it's got a brutalist intensity, with the original sexiness almost completely extracted.

My favourites in this style: the DND remix of Blazing Squad's "Standard Flow" with Elephant Man (biting from DMX's "One More Road To Cross"!); the El-Tuff Dub of Ladies' First's "I Can't Wait", Soulo & Steve Feelgood's "True".

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 14 November 2002 03:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Why does every time a dance track sound different, everybody say the style has changed. I mean, cast a wider net people! I don't hear Creed and then the Hives and go HOLY SHIT! Rock is moving in ground breaking ways. Do techno-makers make sure their new tracks fit these assigned categories or do they just make the sounds they wanna? Anybody makin' an 98' style song in '02 or is passe passe?

Maybe I'm too much of a rock auteur theorist to appreciate "trends" like that. So I'll admit I may not know what I'm talking about. But this stuff has got me all buggin'.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 14 November 2002 04:00 (twenty-three years ago)

house != techno != jungle != gabba != speed garage != microhouse etc etc etc etc wibbles, dies.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 November 2002 04:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Anthony, crucial diff = the way that dancefloor culture operates. If the primary medium for rock was hearing collections of likeminded rock songs from different artists in clubs (as opposed to listening to discrete single-artist albums) I think you'd see rock expressed in terms of "trends" too.

As it is I think the genrephobes have it lucky in UK Garage, which covers an astonishingly broad range of sounds and styles. "Black gabba" was descriptive, not a bid for a new style of music.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 14 November 2002 05:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks for the info, Tim (ah, so I have to check out 2-STEP then I see!).

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 14 November 2002 08:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Jordan, I may be biased, but allow me to say that you're in for quite a ride. If I wasn't so drunk I'd do a s&d for you, but... ah, fuck it, here's a top ten to look for:

1. Amira - My Desire (Dreem Teem Mix)
2. Zed Bias - Neighbourhood
3. David Howard - U & I
4. James Lavonz - Mash Up Da Venue
5. Sticky ft Dynamite - Boo!
6. Dem 2 - Destiny
7. London Dodgers - Down Down Biznizz
8. Valerie M - Tingles 2000 (Artful Dodger Remix)
9. Artful Dodger - Woman Trouble (Wideboys Remix)
10. Doolally - Straight From The Heart (Bump & Flex Dub)

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 14 November 2002 15:22 (twenty-three years ago)

In my view, the greatest speed garage, if not any type of garage music, is Judy Cheeks - Reach & Spin (Dub Mix). Inspired by Armand Van Helden's Spin Spin Sugar. Check it out if you don't know what it is. Also goes by the name of Reach & Spin - Hyper! (Hype The Funk)

― Nick Furzland, Monday, 18 November 2002 13:46 (twenty-three years ago)

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